Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/524

 established February 16, 1915, and discontinued June 15, 1916, with papers to Sodaville.

RACKHEAP CREEK, Tillamook County. This stream is in the extreme north part of the county and flows into North Fork Nehalem River from the east. Little Rackheap Creek is just to the north and flows into Rackheap Creek. In January, 1944, J. H. Scott of Nehalem wrote the compiler that the term rackheap was used by loggers to indicate a heap or pile of logs to be driven down stream by splash dam operations. It also means an accumulation of waste and scrap logs and debris. An eddy in the North Fork Nehalem River piles up a collection of debris and brush at the mouth of Rackheap Creek, which is the reason for the odd name of the stream.

Ragic, Curry County. Ragic is Cigar spelled backward. G. W. Meservey wrote from Illahe saying that a distinctive name was wanted, and Ragic was the result! Ragic post office was established September 10, 1898, with John H. McElhaney first postmaster. The office was closed October 5, 1900, and mail sent to Wedderburn. Ragic was about nine miles up Rogue River from Wedderburn, apparently on the McElhaney place about a mile west of the mouth of Lobster Creek.

RAILROAD CREEK, Douglas County. This stream is in the west part of the county and is tributary from the east to North Fork Smith River at a point about a mile and a half up stream from the mouth of North Fork. In May, 1948, William Wroe, a local resident, wrote that the name Railroad was applied because there was once a logging railroad near the creek. Wroe added: "That was way over fifty years ago and there is no trace of the railroad left."

Railroad GAP, Jackson County. The name Railroad Gap has been used in the upper Evans Creek area for many years. It is applied to a natural pass and also to a Forest Service lookout, both of which are situated in the southwest corner of township 32 south, range 2 west. When the Oregon and California Railroad was being projected south from Roseburg in the '70s, a survey was run through this section in hope of finding a practicable route from the drainage of Cow Creek into the Rogue River. This location was not used but the fact of the survey gave rise to the name Railroad Gap. For the geography of the locality, see USGS map of the Trail quadrangle, issued in 1945.

RAINBOW, Lane County. The name of this post office was suggested by Mrs. L. Quimby, whose husband bought the property where the office is situated, in May, 1922. The office was established July 1, 1924. Mrs. Quimby selected the name because McKenzie River nearby is the home of the popular rainbow trout, Salmo irideus.

RAINBOW Point, Klamath County. This point is on the south shore of Crescent Lake. It was named by F. W. Cleator of the Forest Service in 1925 because of the presence of many rainbow trout in the water nearby.

RAINIER, Columbia County. The town of Rainier was founded by Charles E. Fox, who settled there in 1851, and was the first postmaster. The name of the town was taken from Mount Rainier. The earlier name was Eminence. Mount Rainier, in Washington, has been the center of probably the most acute geographic name controversy in the history of the country. It was named by George Vancouver on May 8, 1792, for Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, of the Royal Navy. For facts about the discovery and Admiral Rainier, see Meany's Vancouver's Discovery of